News from Opening Bell

In a Janesville (WI) Gazette (9/16, Stanford) op-ed, Democratic consultant and Austin American-Statesman and MSNBC columnist Jason Stanford lauds efforts in California and Texas to reform their annual assessments but questions the US Department of Education’s response, in which it rejected both states’ approaches and threatened to withhold Federal funding in the event either state abandons the tests. According to Stanford, “Secretary Duncan’s refusal to play ball with California and Texas shows that the federal government is committed to the ideology of assessment for the sake of the data, not the learning.” Stanford adds that “It’s time to stop testing for testing’s sake and fostering the innovation that makes America exceptional.”